What to know about the rest of the WNBA season

With a little under a month left in the WNBA regular season, the scramble for the playoffs is underway.

While Phoenix and Atlanta are solidly sitting atop the two conferences, only 2 1/2 games separates second through sixth place in the East. Three games is the margin between third and sixth in the West. Most teams have about a dozen games left.

"One game at a time, that's not our priority to catch Atlanta, our priority is to get the fourth or the third seed, if we get ourselves there, then we can look towards trying to catch somebody," New York center Tina Charles said. "We're just trying to get in there."

The Liberty are in fifth place in the East.

Here's three things to look for as the season resumes Tuesday after the All-Star Break.

SIZZLING MERCURY: Phoenix has won 12 straight games and sits six wins from tying the Los Angeles Sparks' record of 18 straight victory set in 2001. The Mercury also have a chance to have the best record in league history for a 34-game schedule. Seattle went 28-6 in 2010. At 18-3 the Mercury need to win 11 of 13 to break that mark.

The Houston Comets have the best winning percentage ever when they went 27-3 in 1998. The Mercury have seven of their final 13 games on the road.

COACHING CHANGES: Dream coach Michael Cooper is taking a temporary leave of absence and will have surgery this week in Atlanta to deal with early stage tongue cancer. The Dream say a full recovery is expected. He is expected to miss about two weeks, and assistant coach Karleen Thompson will fill in.

Carol Ross is out in Los Angeles, replaced by general manager Penny Toler.

"Our goal is to make the playoffs first," Toler said. "This is a very tough league. We still have 12 games to go. We're going to take it one game at a time and try and secure a playoff spot. With the way season is going we can't assume we're in the playoffs. We have to win."

MVP RACE: The stars have been shining in the WNBA this season with a host of candidates for the league's MVP. The Western Conference leading Mercury have two in Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner. Taurasi is averaging 17.8 points and 5.9 assists for the top team in the league, who have won 12 straight games. Griner has been a force on the defensive end, blocking 80 shots so far, which is more than half the teams in the league have reached. Maya Moore is the league's scoring leader and has carried the Lynx while her teammates have been getting healthy. Angel McCoughtry is doing everything for the Dream to get them to the top of the East.

Reigning MVP Candace Parker is having another strong season despite her team's sitting in fourth place in the West.